I wanted to do a write up of the turkey hunt contest that my daughter Eva won on WA Hunt Forum provided by Bearpaw outfitters. I originally was not going to have Eva enter the contest because she would be playing fast pitch softball for her high school. Unfortunately there were some politics that got in the way of her making the team which was devastating for her but it opened up a chance to turkey hunt. I entered her in for the hunt and didn’t even tell her since I figured another disappointment may not be so great for her. Then I got the email from Dale stating that she won the hunt! I could not believe it and when I told her she had a huge smile and was beyond excited. We made arrangements to head over Friday and hunt Saturday and Sunday if needed. We had about a 7 hour drive and it was great spending time with my daughter.
We arrived and were greeted by the whole team and were told the other winner got her bird that morning. This made Eva even more excited to get hunting. We went with our guide Zach to sight in her gun and then he asked if we wanted to go with him to watch the turkey’s go up to their roost. We were glad to do that and when Zach pulled in and pointed to the turkeys heading to the roost we could hardly believe how many turkeys we saw. We went back and when we arrived Dale presented Eva with all kinds of turkey gear for future hunts. We were both floored at the generosity of Bearpaw outfitters and the members of WA Hunt forum that donated.
Neither of us slept that night due to the excitement and when we got set up we couldn’t believe the amount of birds that were gobbling from the roost. Excitement levels were high. Eva patiently waited for them to get close enough but the birds decided they didn’t want to cooperate with our plan and walked all around but never within range that morning. We tried again during the evening hunt with no luck as well.
We went back and had dinner and shared some hunting stories with the other hunters and headed to bed so we could try again the next morning. We got up before light had some breakfast and our guide Zach felt confident she would get a bird. We set up in the blind before light and waited. We heard the birds come down from the roost and shortly after that we saw a tom strutting his stuff about 200 yards away. We kept watching him and pretty soon he was heading our way and closing in fast. Our guide instructed Eva to get ready. She did exactly as he said and slowly started getting her gun into the ready position. The tom was coming in real fast and I wasn’t sure Eva would have time to get her gun ready and get a shot off. He was on the move after two hens. Then all of a sudden at 21 yards he stops and goes into full strut which was enough time for Eva to put her red dot on his head and pull the trigger. He folded up and was dead right there. We waited for the hens to clear out and then celebrated the great morning hunt that ended in success! She bagged a nice mature tom with a nine inch beard. After some photos we got back and our guide cleaned up her turkey and shortly after that we were headed home since work and school were waiting for us the next day.
I asked Eva what her favorite part of the hunt was and she first said getting her turkey, but after some thought she said that was the icing on the cake and she really enjoyed the whole experience from the drive over, visiting with the other hunters, the country, seeing wildlife, laughing, hearing stories, the drive home and of course the bird.
Both of us would like to thank Bearpaw Outfitters for gifting us this hunt. They are a class act operation that made my daughter even more excited about hunting. We would like to thank everyone that donated to the hunt as well. You all helped get another young woman excited about hunting and enjoying the great outdoors.
